For the average high school graduate, there is usually one of two paths they can take after the turning of the tassel -- head off to college or to enter the workforce. For Marquez Williams when she arrived at the fork in the road, she really did not know which path she wanted to take. It was the emergence of a third dusty path that set her in a quandary, especially as she hadn't been the brightest and best student. She admits to having been a member of the nonchalant set that coasted through high school with a C grade average. But now that she's decided on the path she wants to take, she's focused on being the best student she can be. Marquez, 22, is enrolled in a bachelor's degree program at Florence Design Academy in Italy where she's studying interior and furniture design with a minor in yacht design. Prior to arriving in Italy, she had spent a year in Spain, studying Spanish.
"I have finally found the correct path," said Marquez while at home for Christmas break. "A lot of people when they graduate high school say they're going to go here, they're going to go there, do this and do that, for me it was different. I didn't know what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go, so it was like I'm done [with high school] now, what do I do? Where do I go?' said the St. Augustine's College graduate." She enrolled in the College of The Bahamas' associates degree program in Spanish. She did not finish. With one class left towards her degree, she left because she did not want to have to wait an entire year to take the final class she needed to graduate. Brainstorming with her mother, Odessa Gibson, and her aunt, Lynne Gibson, a Spanish teacher, to figure out what she would do, they decided to enroll her in a study abroad program.
Since she had already been studying Spanish, it was easy enough for them to come to the realization that she should go to a Spanish-speaking country. They decided on Spain. The next question was whether she would travel to the big city -- Madrid. Marquez did online research and literally said she typed in "best Spanish schools and Spain" and the University of Salamanca popped up. Turns out it was one of the top universities in Spain and one of the top three in Europe. The average student decided that it was where she would go. In September 2011 she headed off for a year in Spain.
She described the experience as amazing. "More than meeting the people, my Spanish has improved ten-fold, because while in Nassau, I learned Spanish while speaking English in class, but in Spain, I had to learn Spanish while speaking Spanish in class. If I didn't understand something they [lecturers] just kept going and going and it forced me to understand what was being said, and my brain made the switch between Spanish and English, so going into stores and speaking Spanish to ask for something I wasn't afraid to do. It was natural to me because I was constantly hearing it every day." Traveling to Spain for an immersion year she said was one of the best decisions she ever made.
"Anyone that's a language major should do an immersion course. The way your brain works, once you're in the setting, it completely shifts, and you don't really notice it happening. But when you go to stores and speak to natives, you're like hey I've got it." She got it so much that upon her return home in May she found herself mixing up the two languages. "I found myself having to stop sometimes and say to myself, what is that word in English, I can't remember it." Eye opener Despite that year, Marquez was still at a crossroads and thought to herself: What next? She thought back to a brief work stint she had with an interior designer and in a furniture store and how people had asked her how to pair furniture pieces. But she said the experience with the interior designer opened her eyes to the fact that there was another world out there and that she did not have to be a doctor, lawyer or anything like that. It opened her eyes to the fact that she could do something artsy and provide for herself and be happy at the same time.
With a little prodding from her mother, Marquez did the research and realized that design was something she could definitely get into. And with everyone telling her that Italy is the place she had to be if she wanted to design, she made up her mind to attend school in Italy. But like her decision to go to Spain, she did not know which school she would attend. She again did her research and in August 2012 she left for Florence Design Academy for their three-year program. "I thought Spain was eye-opening, but living in Italy and having a heavier schedule is amazing for me." Looking back at her first semester she said she realizes how much she's learnt as she looked back over the things she'd done. "The feeling to see the things I created from my mind and how I put them together on paper or how I built them was amazing," she said. The bilingual Marquez is also now studying to become tri-lingual. She's taking Italian classes. So far she's found Italian to be a little "tricky" because she says Italian and Spanish are similar, but with different accents and the way things are spelled.
"I have to clear my brain, because sometimes I'm sitting in class saying it looks like Spanish but it's not Spanish, so I have change my brain to think about Italian as Italian and Spanish as Spanish and separate them," she said. After a rough start towards higher education, Marquez seems to finally be on the right path. "I had a rough time in high school. Actually I just wanted to graduate to be quite honest." Marquez says at graduation her grade point average was just above a 2.5. The switch The switch for her happened in her last semester at COB in December 2010. That was when she said she realized she had to get things together, and that it all came together for her in Spain.
"It was there that I got my highest GPA of my high school and university career. They didn't give GPAs but I got three As and a B, and I was like okay, yes, this is it, now and I have to be serious from this point on now." That result she said made her realize that if you're not interested in something you won't give it your all. "It made me realize that if I got a C on test I was happy because I passed. But when you're really interested in something, to get a C grade is actually heartbreaking, because you're like; No, I worked for this. I worked for an A. I deserve an A." After completing her stint at the Florence Design Academy, Marquez has her sights set on attending Parsons The New School For Design in New York to study architecture and lighting design As she continues to travel the world, Marquez says she has come to the realization that education is beyond the walls of a classroom.
"For me, exploring Europe and meeting people from different cultures, different backgrounds, allows me to see that we have ways of doing things in The Bahamas, but that there are people out there who do the same things, but do it in completely different ways -- and when you see it you're like okay, I don't have to continue to do it the same way, but I can get the same results or even better if I try it the way someone else does it from a different country," she said. And her advice to struggling high school students is for them to give themselves an extra hour daily to study subjects they find difficult. She said the more they do it, the better they'll become.
At it And for students that are nonchalant about their studies the way she was, her advice to them is to think about their future and what they see themselves doing. "Ask yourself where do you want to go. If you have grand goals for yourself, you can't get there by just saying it will come, it will happen. You have to actually work towards it. And if you don't see yourself doing anything, then this is a fine attitude for you, but if you see yourself in a high position or doing something positively to affect your community and yourself and your family in the future, then this is the time for you to act. You can't wait until the last minute, because sometimes last minute ventures fail. And you really have to start now," she said. She also encourages all students to try a semester abroad -- even if it's in an English-speaking country.
She said is it completely changes a person and that she's a prime example. "The way you mature, the way you think about things completely shifts -- and not in a negative way, but in a positive way that can only benefit you in the future." Surprisingly, Marquez, who is now studying design sat the Bahamas General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) craft exam and was graded at D. She did an African mask and she guesses it fell flat for the examiners. She also sat the Math, English, Literature, Biology and Economic exams and was graded at C in all subjects. "Things have definitely changed, because I know what I want to do so I know I have to give that extra effort to get higher and higher, get my grades higher and create a great portfolio, so I definitely work a lot harder now and I'm not as nonchalant." She works so hard that the final week of her semester she said she got eight hours of sleep in seven days as she threw herself into her studies. At the design school, grades are given yearly, so Marquez does not know how she performed grade-wise in her first semester, but she's confident she did well.
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